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Sri Lanka Survives Netherlands Scare

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Despite a resolute fightback by the Dutch, Sri Lanka held on to register a 21-run victory in their first Super Six match of the ongoing World Cup qualifiers worked off at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe on Friday.

After opting to bat first, A disciplined bowling from the Dutch saw Sri Lanka settle for a below-par score of 213 runs riding on the efforts of Dhananjaya de Silva, who scored his highest individual score.

The Asian Champions found themselves struggling from the first bowl after in-form Pathum Nissanka walked back to the pavilion for a golden duck.
Adding salt to Sri Lanka’s wound they lost two more wickets under five overs when Ryan Klein trapped Kusal Mendis for 10, while van Beek removed Sadeera Samarawickrama in the very next over to pin them further down.
To make things worse Logan Van Beek picked up his third wicket in the seventh over that of Charith Aslaanka (2) derailing the Lankans further.
Sri Lanka struggling at 34 for 4 inside seven overs, Dhanajaya de Silva showed some restraint and put on two of Sri Lanka’s most productive partnerships with Wanindu Hasaranga and Mahesh Theekshana.

De Silva struck 93 off 111 balls hitting eight fours and two sixes. He was well supported by Hasaranga and Theekshana, who scored 20 and 28 respectively.

De Silva and Mahesh Theekshana were engaged in a 77-run partnership for the 8th wicket to help Sri Lanka post a defendable total.

In reply, it was almost the carbon copy of the Sri Lanka innings when the Netherlands both openers fell for ducks, Lahiru Kumara removing Vikramjit Singh and Dilshan Madushanka accounting for Max O’Dowd.

Despite a shaky start, the Dutch revived their innings to a certain extent thanks to Wesley Barresi (52) and de Leede (41) putting on 77 for the third wicket before Hasaranga and Theekshana with the ball this time wreaked havoc, sharing five wickets between them. Skipper Scott Edwards (67*) scored his fourth fifty of the tournament to keep the Netherlands in the hunt. But he soon ran out of partners and his side succumbed to a 21-run defeat.

With this win, Sri Lanka has one foot already in the World Cup in India. They need just another win to seal the deal. They take on Zimbabwe at the same venue next.

Meanwhile, In the seventh-place play-off semifinal in Harare, Ireland secured a comfortable six-wicket victory over the USA, who remained winless in the tournament.

The USA asked to bat first, lost two early wickets but recovered with an 88-run partnership between Saiteja Mukkamalla and Sushant Modani. However, Ireland fought back, taking quick wickets and slicing the USA to 196 all out. Craig Young shone with three wickets.

In the chase, Ireland started well, thanks to Paul Stirling’s breezy fifty at the top and was helped by Andy Balbirnie’s 45* along the way as they chased the target with 15.4 overs to spare.

Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 213 in 47.4 overs (Dhananjaya de Silva 93, van Beek 3-26) defeated Netherlands 192 in 40 overs (Edwards 67*, Theekshana 3-31) by 21 runs

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නෙදර්ලන්ත භීෂණයෙන් ගැලවෙයි.

නෙදර්ලන්ත ක්‍රීඩකයන්ගේ නොපසුබට සටනක් නොතකා, සිකුරාදා සිම්බාබ්වේ බුලවායෝහිදී පැවැත්වෙන ලෝක කුසලාන සුදුසුකම් ලැබීමේ තරගාවලියේ ඔවුන්ගේ පළමු සුපර් සික්ස් තරගයෙන් ලකුණු 21 ක ජයක් වාර්තා කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සමත් විය.

ප්‍රථමයෙන් පන්දුවට පහරදීමට තීරණය කිරීමෙන් අනතුරුව නෙදර්ලන්ත ක්‍රීඩකයන්ගේ දක්ෂ පන්දු යැවීම හමුවේ සිය ඉහළම පුද්ගලික ලකුණු සංඛ්‍යාව රැස්කළ ධනංජය ද සිල්වාගේ උත්සාහය මත ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ලකුණු 213කට සීමා විය.

දක්ෂ පන්දු යැවීමක නිරත වූ පැතුම් නිශ්ශංක ලකුණු රැස් නොකිරීම නිසාවෙන් ආසියානු ශූරයින් පළමු පන්දු යැවීමේ දී අසීරු තත්ත්වයකට පත් විය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ තුවාලයට ලුණු එකතු කරමින් රයන් ක්ලයින් කුසල් මෙන්ඩිස් ලකුණු 10කට දවා ගනිද්දී තවත් කඩුලු 2ක් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පිලට අහිමි වූ අතර, වැන් බීක් ඊළඟ ඕවරයේදීම සදීර සමරවික්‍රම දවා ගත්තේ ඔවුන්ව තවත් පහළට තල්ලු කරමිනි.
තත්ත්වය වඩාත් නරක අතට හැරවීම සඳහා ලෝගන් වැන් බීක් හත්වැනි ඕවරයේදී චරිත් අසලංක ඔහුගේ තෙවැනි කඩුල්ල ලෙස දවා ගත්තේ ලංකා ක්‍රීඩකයන් තවත් පහළට ඇද දමමිනි.
ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඕවර හතක් ඇතුළත කඩුලු 4ක් දැවී ලකුණු 34ක් ලබා සිටියදී අසීරු තත්ත්වයක සිටි අතර, ධනජය ද සිල්වා යම් සංයමයක් පෙන්නුම් කළ අතර වනිඳු හසරංග සහ මහේෂ් තීක්ෂණ සමඟින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ වඩාත්ම ඵලදායි සබඳතා දෙකක් ඇති කළේය.

ධනංජය ද සිල්වා පන්දු 111කදී හතරේ පහර 8ක් සහ හයේ පහර 2ක් සමඟින් ලකුණු 93ක් රැස් කළේය. ඔහුට සහය වූ හසරංග සහ තීක්ෂණ පිළිවෙළින් ලකුණු 20ක් සහ 28ක් ලබා ගත්හ.

ද සිල්වා සහ මහේෂ් තීක්ෂණ 8 වැනි කඩුල්ලට ලකුණු 77ක සබඳතාවයක නියැළෙමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකා පිල ආරක්ෂා කළ හැකි ලකුණු සංඛ්‍යාවක් වාර්තා කිරීමට ඉවහල් විය.

පිළිතුරු ලෙස නෙදර්ලන්ත ආරම්භක පිතිකරුවන් දෙදෙනාම දැවී යාම ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉනිමේ කාබන් කොපියක් විය.

ආරම්භය බිඳවැටුණද, තෙවැනි කඩුල්ල වෙනුවෙන් ලකුණු 77ක සබඳතාවක් ගොඩනැගූ වෙස්ලි බැරේසි (52) සහ ද ලීඩ් (41)ගේ පිතිහරඹය හේතුවෙන් නෙදර්ලන්ත ක්‍රීඩකයන් තම ඉනිම යම්තාක් දුරට යථා තත්ත්වයට පත් කළේ ය. ඔවුන්ට. නායක ස්කොට් එඩ්වර්ඩ්ස් (67*) මෙම තරගාවලියේ සිය සිවුවැනි අර්ධ ශතකය වාර්තා කරමින් නෙදර්ලන්තය තරඟයේ තබා ගැනීමට සමත් විය. නමුත් හසරංග සහ තීක්ෂණගේ පන්දු හමුවේ ඉක්මනින්ම ඔහුට අනෙක් පිතිකරුවන්ගේ සහය අහිමි වූ අතර ඔහුගේ කණ්ඩායම ලකුණු 21 ක පරාජයකට යටත් විය.

මෙම ජයග්‍රහණයත් සමඟ ඉන්දියාවේදී පැවැත්වෙන ලෝක කුසලාන තරගාවලියට ශ්‍රී ලංකාව දැනටමත් එක් පාදයක් හිමිකරගෙන සිටියි. එය සහතික කරගැනීමට ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය වන්නේ තවත් ජයග්‍රහණයක් පමණි. ඔවුන් මීළඟට එම පිටියේදීම සිම්බාබ්වේ සමග තරග වදියි.

සංක්ෂිප්ත ලකුණු: ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඕවර 47.4කදී 213 (ධනංජය ද සිල්වා 93, වැන් බීක් 3-26) නෙදර්ලන්තය ඕවර 40කදී 192 (එඩ්වර්ඩ්ස් 67*, තීක්ෂණ 3-31) ලකුණු 21කින් පරාජය කරන ලදී.

Football

Stafford vs. Colombo International: The Second Edition of the Big Match Kicks Off!

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Football fever returns as Stafford International School and Colombo International School gear up for the second edition of their highly anticipated Big Match! This year, the rivalry intensifies with four matches across different age and gender categories:

U15 Girls
U15 Boys
U20 Girls
U20 Boys

🏆 Stafford International’s Rising Stars:

  • U15 Girls: Defending TISSL U14 and Colombo SLSFA District champions, featuring standout players like Keshalee Ranatunga and Sonja Ratanayake (just 10 years old!).
  • U15 Boys: All-Island U14 runners-up out of 462 schools, led by goalkeeper Yash Amarasekara, who was named Best U14 GK in Sri Lanka.
  • U20 Girls & Boys: Both teams finished as TISSL runners-up, boasting stars like Raya Rikaz, Yumna Safraz, Adnaan Ameen, and Nidurshan Mohan.

🏆 Colombo International’s Key Players:

  • U15 Girls: TISSL U16 runners-up, featuring top defender Khadeeja Niyas and striker Ozra.
  • U20 Girls: TISSL U20 runners-up, with Fioni Dedhia named Goalkeeper of the Tournament.
  • U20 Boys: Defending Big Match champions, looking to retain their title behind stars like Krishwen and Habib.

👀 Who will come out on top this time? Watch the action LIVE at the link below! 🎥👇

#BigMatch2025 #SchoolFootball #SriLankaFootball #StaffordVsCIS #RivalryRenewed

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Cricket

Shammi Silva Re-Elected as Sri Lanka Cricket President for Fourth Consecutive Term

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Shammi Silva has been re-elected as the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) president for the 2025-27 term, marking his fourth consecutive tenure at the helm of the nation’s cricket governing body. Silva secured the position uncontested at the 64th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Colombo on Monday.

A Controversial Yet Dominant Tenure

Silva’s leadership has not been without controversy. His previous term saw a high-profile clash with former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe in 2023, which led to an interim committee being appointed after Sri Lanka’s poor performance in the ICC ODI World Cup. This move resulted in ICC suspending SLC, which led to Sri Lanka losing the hosting rights for the U19 Men’s World Cup, which was later held in South Africa.

Despite these setbacks, Silva regained control after a court ruling reinstated his administration, and he was later appointed as the president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in December 2023, replacing Jay Shah.

Challenges & Future Outlook

Sri Lanka Cricket has long been seen as a powerful and influential body, with internal politics often shaping its leadership. With financial mismanagement concerns highlighted in the Auditor General’s report, Silva’s administration faces the challenge of restoring credibility and ensuring better governance.

With the ICC ban lifted, Sri Lanka looks to rebuild its cricketing structure and improve performance on the international stage. The focus now shifts to upcoming bilateral series, the Asia Cup, and preparations for the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup.

Stay tuned for more updates on Sri Lanka Cricket and the latest in the world of sports!

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Cricket

Stephen Fleming Defends MS Dhoni’s Batting Position Amid Criticism

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Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming has defended MS Dhoni’s late entry in the batting order, stating that the legendary wicketkeeper-batsman cannot play an extended innings at full intensity due to lingering knee concerns.

The 43-year-old Dhoni faced criticism after coming in at No. 9 during CSK’s 50-run loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chepauk. In the next match against Rajasthan Royals on March 30, 2025, he batted at No. 7 when CSK required 54 off 25 balls but managed just 16 off 11 as his team fell short by six runs.

Fleming’s Explanation on Dhoni’s Role

Fleming emphasized that Dhoni carefully assesses the match situation before deciding when to bat.

“It’s all about timing. MS judges his body and situation. His knees aren’t what they used to be, so he can’t bat for 10 overs at full intensity. He will step in based on the game’s demands,” Fleming explained at the post-match press conference.

The CSK coach reiterated that Dhoni remains too valuable to the team for his leadership and wicketkeeping and that sending him in too early could be a strategic misstep.

“From around the 13th or 14th over, he assesses the situation and decides. He trusts other batters early on but steps up when needed.”

CSK’s Struggles in the Powerplay Cost Them the Match

Fleming also pinpointed CSK’s poor powerplay performance as a key reason for their loss against Rajasthan Royals. While RR blasted 79/1 in the powerplay, CSK only managed 42/1,

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